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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29031456">A History of Disasters</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/pseuds/thedevilchicken'>thedevilchicken</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Assassin's Creed - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Facial Shaving, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Kissing, M/M, Male Eivor (Assassin's Creed), Straight Razors</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 04:15:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,376</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29031456</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/pseuds/thedevilchicken</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Eivor has been persuaded to let Vili help him tidy up his beard. Eivor's motives for letting him do this aren't necessarily completely pure.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eivor/Vili Hemmingson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>114</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Bulletproof 20/21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A History of Disasters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/liodain/gifts">liodain</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Remind me again why I agreed to this?" Eivor said. </p><p>He was sitting on a chair in his room in the longhouse, his back to the desk and his shirt abandoned just in case an accident occurred, which didn't seem at all unlikely. Vili was standing nearby, so close indeed that one of his knees nudged Eivor's as he tapped the flat of the razor against the back of his hand. </p><p>"Because you have a long history of shaving disasters," Vili replied. He put one hand on Eivor's bare shoulder and leaned past him; he put the razor down on the top of the desk and retrieved the oil that was sitting there instead, and started rubbing it into the patches of Eivor's face he was preparing to shave. "You remember what happened that time in Stavanger?"</p><p>Eivor chuckled. He crossed his arms over his chest. "I was drunk in Stavanger," he said, and he moved to slap Vili in his still-clothed chest with the back of one hand before tucking it back into place again. "As were you, if you recall. I don't think asking you to help would have been much help at all."</p><p>"Oh, I was very drunk," Vili agreed. He pressed two fingers underneath Eivor's chin to tilt his head back and he worked some oil into the prickly skin there on his neck. He did it with both his hands, slowly, leaning over him, close enough that it made Eivor's chest feel tight and his face feel warm. It had been a long time since he'd let anyone else shave him. "But you weren't drunk that night when we camped outside Nottfall."</p><p>"No, but the mushrooms you put in the stew were...hmm. <i>Potent</i>?"</p><p>Vili laughed. He patted Eivor's cheek and then stood back again, oily hands on his hips. "Yes, but that wasn't my fault," he said. "You know I don't know a winter chanterelle from a destroying angel." </p><p>"And you also can't cook." </p><p>Vili smiled blithely. He shook his head and rolled his eyes. "And I also can't cook," he agreed, and then he put one hand on Eivor's shoulder again to lean by and retrieve the razor. Eivor knew he didn't need to lean on him to keep his balance as he did it. Vili likely knew he knew he didn't need to. However, that fact very much did not stop him. </p><p>Vili had tied all of Eivor's hair back to keep it out of the way once they'd begun, so his neck was as bare and exposed as his shirtless chest was. Vili raised the razor in one hand and tilted Eivor's chin again with the other, and he started right by where the awkward lump was forming in Eivor's throat. He'd never touched him quite so frequently when they'd been younger, not like he had since they'd met again in England, and when he'd touched him back then he hadn't lingered like he'd started to do now. He'd started clasping Eivor's shoulders from behind as he joined him at the table to eat or letting his fingers linger at his wrist as he helped him up out of the ship, or leaning in a little closer by his ear than was needed to be heard over other people's voices, but Eivor hadn't yet found it in him to protest. Slowly, he'd realised he never would.</p><p>It was strange, he thought, as the razor rasped against his skin: the way that everything he did with Vili felt easy and familiar but still new somehow, from the way they fought together side by side to telling tales of their misspent youth for the other raiders on the longship. They'd taken to sitting together at mealtimes, elbows jostling as they ate or opposite each other, all wry smiles and shared looks it took no effort to interpret. It was a welcome distraction from the mundanities of running the settlement. Sometimes, as seriously and as steadfastly as he viewed that task, he understood why Vili hadn't wanted that himself.</p><p>He'd missed his friend over the years and he was glad to have him back, but at the end of each night, Vili returned to the barracks and Eivor went to bed alone. Sometimes, lately, he'd been imagining he hadn't, like that one night they'd spent together months ago before Vili's father's funeral. And now Vili's hands were on his skin as he dragged the razor's edge over the messy margins of his beard with surprising proficiency. Vili was so close he could feel how warm he was in the slight spring chill and if he'd wanted to, if he'd made his mind up to, he could've reached out and traced the tattoos that ran down his forearm. He'd done that before, that one night, but he didn't feel like he'd done it enough.</p><p>Vili had taken off his cloak when he'd come into the room and thrown it down on the end of Eivor's bed. He'd taken off his usual leathers and left himself in the tunic underneath, pulled off his belt and had Eivor hold one end so he could use the leather of it as a strop for the edge of the razor. Eivor had reeled him in with it, hand over hand, and Vili had laughed and let him do it. Now Eivor wished he hadn't stopped. He could have pulled him in, and pulled him down, kissed his mouth and found out if all this teasing really was just teasing or if Vili might want the same as he did, too. He wished he hadn't stopped, but he had. Still, he supposed it wasn't too late to find out.</p><p>"Do you remember what we talked about back in Snotinghamscire?" Eivor asked, not entirely managing casual, as Vili worked.</p><p>"We talked about a lot of things in Snotinghamscire, Wolf-Kissed," Vili replied, with a twinkle in his eye that said he knew precisely what he meant. "Which thing did you mean in particular?"</p><p>"About Norway. About what we might have been if we hadn't left."</p><p>Vili smiled and kept on working, his eyes on the blade in his hand against Eivor's skin. </p><p>"Drengir, probably," he said. "Like we are now." He paused, the blade still pressed snug to Eivor's throat as he glanced at him with one brow raised. "Or is that not what you meant?" Then he looked away again and resumed shaving almost nonchalantly.</p><p>He could have laughed the whole thing off, he supposed, and that might have been for the best. Sometimes, usually at night when he was alone with his thoughts, Eivor had wondered if the choice he'd made for Vili's future had been entirely selfless or if he'd seen the opportunity to keep him close and taken it. Vili seemed happy there, though, serving with Ravensthorpe's raiders and not trying to fill his father's shoes. And he was nothing if not blunt enough to say no if Eivor went too far, whether he was his jarl now or not.</p><p>"I meant about us," Eivor said. "About what we might have been to each other." </p><p>"Then yes, I remember." Vili shrugged. "You said it was a flickering flame." He gestured vaguely in the air with the razor, then went back to straightening out the edges of Eivor's beard. "A momentary heat?"</p><p>"Well, I've had time to reconsider that." </p><p>"Oh?"</p><p>"I think it might be more like a bonfire."</p><p>Vili's mouth twisted as he didn't quite suppress a smile. "Roaring?" he suggested. "Passionate?"</p><p>"More like the fire we had at the Yule festival. Frustratingly inescapable wherever you go and the smoke gets in your eyes."</p><p>Vili snorted. He stood himself up straight and raised his brows. "You're ridiculous," he said.</p><p>"I know, but you seem to find it charming."</p><p>Vili clucked his tongue. "I do," he said, like it was against his better judgement. "You know, Eivor, I do." Then he stepped in close and he settled himself down, straddling Eivor's lap - it made the chair give an ominous creak, and it made Eivor's pulse begin to quicken, but Vili just kept on shaving as Eivor's hands went up to brace him at his hips.</p><p>They'd always been a kind of mismatch in terms of height, even when they'd been younger; sitting there astride Eivor's lap, straight-backed, Vili almost seemed even taller than usual, but Eivor couldn't say he minded that. He gave Vili's hips a slow, almost tentative squeeze as he looked up at him, not completely sure if it was wanted or if Vili was still teasing him. He slipped his hands in underneath the hem of Vili's tunic, slid them up until he found the warm skin of his back to press his palms again, and Vili's smile said the teasing had stopped. Eivor rubbed there, lightly, at the dimples he knew he'd find at the small of Vili's back by the waist of his trousers, while Vili moved the razor here and there over his skin. He wanted to kiss him but one false move and taking off his shirt to avoid a gush of blood might have proved prudent thinking, and so he waited. And, eventually, Vili leaned forward, his own beard brushing Eivor's ear, to set the razor on the desk. Then he stood, and he looked down, and he nodded. </p><p>He didn't actually say anything: what he did was pull his tunic off over his head and drop it to the floor, ruffling his hair in the process. Eivor knew what he looked like underneath, the tattoos that wound their way over his skin, the scars here and there from battles he regretted that he hadn't been there to share with him, and the dark hair over his chest and running down his abdomen to the waist of his trousers and below. He couldn't help the surge of attraction that he felt as he looked up at him, or the pang of desire as Vili unlaced the side tie of his trousers and let them hang open. A flap of fabric fell forward and formed a deep V over his thigh, showing off one hip entirely, and Eivor shuffled forward, perched himself on the edge of his chair to lean in and press his mouth to the skin he'd just exposed. Vili didn't stop him; he just tugged the tie from Eivor's hair and slipped his fingers into it, and pulled him close. </p><p>When Eivor rose, Vili kissed him, sudden and hot with the fingers of both hands twisted up into his hair. With Eivor on his tiptoes they were almost the same height and he kissed him back, blunt nails raking the nape of his neck, down his spine, and Vili bit his bottom lip then dropped his mouth to the faintly oiled skin under his jaw. Eivor pushed his hands down underneath the waist of Vili's trousers, cupped his arse, squeezed, and Vili chuckled lowly against his mouth. Eivor's heartbeat quickened. Honestly, he almost felt giddy with it.</p><p>Vili wasn't inexperienced - Eivor had known that much even before they'd slept together. Eivor wasn't inexperienced, either - Vili had teased him about that last time, about how confident he'd been in stripping them both naked and straddling his hips. Vili  had still been teasing him, albeit red-faced and half breathless, as Eivor had grasped his cock and worked it up inside himself. As they parted to strip off what remained of their clothes, Eivor remembered pressing his palms to Vili's chest and riding him, slowly, like he'd wanted to do for years. He remembered being absolutely sure that it was not the right time - Vili's father's funeral to come and choices to make about the future - but doing it anyway. That hadn't been the right time, but maybe this was.</p><p>This time, they went to Eivor's bed instead of bruising his knees in a cliffside cave. This time, Vili pushed Eivor down onto his back with the jar of shaving oil dangling precariously from one hand and a bright smile on his face. Eivor liked that look on him, he thought, a lot more than his brooding, pensive side. He liked the way that he told him what he was going to do in the moments before he did it, with a blush in his cheeks and a flush to his cock that said he wanted it as much as Eivor did. He told him he was going to fuck him and he did, teeth bared and hair messy, while Eivor arched his back and pushed against him. And then afterwards, once they'd caught their breath, Vili stood himself up and went back to his clothes.</p><p>"So, should I go back to the barracks?" Vili asked, as he was pulling on his trousers, and Eivor understood precisely what it was that he was <i>really</i> being asked: was this their little secret, just another flicker of the flame, or had Eivor finally made up his mind? And he had, he thought, rubbing at his newly-neat beard as he watched him from the bed. He'd never liked keeping secrets. There was no need for some elaborate courtship. What he wanted was to wake up with him day after day, and it didn't seem to matter very much to him who knew that. </p><p>"You could just go get your things then come back here," Eivor said. "It's a big bed and I'll even let you choose a side if you like. How does that sound?" And if Vili found that at all unexpected, he did a very good job of hiding it.</p><p>"Perfect," he replied. "Did you know Rollo snores like a cow?"</p><p>"So do you." </p><p>Vili grinned. "So I'm told," he said. "But I don't hear myself, do I?" Then he disappeared out through the door and left Eivor there smiling. </p><p>He'd be back soon. It wouldn't take long to get to the barracks and back, though Vili would probably stop to tell eight people what he was doing on the way. That didn't matter; that way everyone in town would know by the morning. </p><p>And as far as his long history of shaving disasters was concerned, Eivor had to admit this was a big step in the right direction.</p>
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